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Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application

Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H(2) evolved at the pho...

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Autores principales: Lo Vecchio, Carmelo, Carbone, Alessandra, Trocino, Stefano, Gatto, Irene, Patti, Assunta, Baglio, Vincenzo, Aricò, Antonino Salvatore
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765393/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33333931
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122991
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author Lo Vecchio, Carmelo
Carbone, Alessandra
Trocino, Stefano
Gatto, Irene
Patti, Assunta
Baglio, Vincenzo
Aricò, Antonino Salvatore
author_facet Lo Vecchio, Carmelo
Carbone, Alessandra
Trocino, Stefano
Gatto, Irene
Patti, Assunta
Baglio, Vincenzo
Aricò, Antonino Salvatore
author_sort Lo Vecchio, Carmelo
collection PubMed
description Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H(2) evolved at the photocathode from O(2) at the photoanode, was investigated in terms of ionic conductivity, corrosion mitigation, and light transmission for a tandem photo-electro-chemical configuration. The designed anionic membranes, based on polysulfone polymer, contained positive fixed functionalities on the side chains of the polymeric network, particularly quaternary ammonium species counterbalanced by hydroxide anions. The membrane was first investigated in alkaline solution, KOH or NaOH at different concentrations, to optimize the ion-exchange process. Exchange in 1M KOH solution provided high conversion of the groups, a high ion-exchange capacity (IEC) value of 1.59 meq/g and a hydroxide conductivity of 25 mS/cm at 60 °C for anionic membrane. Another important characteristic, verified for hydroxide membrane, was its transparency above 600 nm, thus making it a good candidate for tandem cell applications in which the illuminated photoanode absorbs the highest-energy photons (< 600 nm), and photocathode absorbs the lowest-energy photons. Furthermore, hydrogen crossover tests showed a permeation of H(2) through the membrane of less than 0.1%. Finally, low-cost tandem photo-electro-chemical cells, formed by titanium-doped hematite and ionomer at the photoanode and cupric oxide and ionomer at the photocathode, separated by a solid membrane in OH form, were assembled to optimize the influence of ionomer-loading dispersion. Maximum enthalpy (1.7%), throughput (2.9%), and Gibbs energy efficiencies (1.3%) were reached by using n-propanol/ethanol (1:1 wt.) as solvent for ionomer dispersion and with a 25 µL cm(−2) ionomer loading for both the photoanode and the photocathode.
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spelling pubmed-77653932020-12-27 Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application Lo Vecchio, Carmelo Carbone, Alessandra Trocino, Stefano Gatto, Irene Patti, Assunta Baglio, Vincenzo Aricò, Antonino Salvatore Polymers (Basel) Article Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H(2) evolved at the photocathode from O(2) at the photoanode, was investigated in terms of ionic conductivity, corrosion mitigation, and light transmission for a tandem photo-electro-chemical configuration. The designed anionic membranes, based on polysulfone polymer, contained positive fixed functionalities on the side chains of the polymeric network, particularly quaternary ammonium species counterbalanced by hydroxide anions. The membrane was first investigated in alkaline solution, KOH or NaOH at different concentrations, to optimize the ion-exchange process. Exchange in 1M KOH solution provided high conversion of the groups, a high ion-exchange capacity (IEC) value of 1.59 meq/g and a hydroxide conductivity of 25 mS/cm at 60 °C for anionic membrane. Another important characteristic, verified for hydroxide membrane, was its transparency above 600 nm, thus making it a good candidate for tandem cell applications in which the illuminated photoanode absorbs the highest-energy photons (< 600 nm), and photocathode absorbs the lowest-energy photons. Furthermore, hydrogen crossover tests showed a permeation of H(2) through the membrane of less than 0.1%. Finally, low-cost tandem photo-electro-chemical cells, formed by titanium-doped hematite and ionomer at the photoanode and cupric oxide and ionomer at the photocathode, separated by a solid membrane in OH form, were assembled to optimize the influence of ionomer-loading dispersion. Maximum enthalpy (1.7%), throughput (2.9%), and Gibbs energy efficiencies (1.3%) were reached by using n-propanol/ethanol (1:1 wt.) as solvent for ionomer dispersion and with a 25 µL cm(−2) ionomer loading for both the photoanode and the photocathode. MDPI 2020-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7765393/ /pubmed/33333931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122991 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lo Vecchio, Carmelo
Carbone, Alessandra
Trocino, Stefano
Gatto, Irene
Patti, Assunta
Baglio, Vincenzo
Aricò, Antonino Salvatore
Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
title Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
title_full Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
title_fullStr Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
title_full_unstemmed Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
title_short Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
title_sort anionic exchange membrane for photo-electrolysis application
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7765393/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33333931
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122991
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